planning

It’s May and Spring has sprung! Flowers are pushing up through the earth, the snow has melted, and school is out soon. So, we’re all thinking about planning for the fall, right? Of course not! Many of us in ministry are doing good to keep up with the now; we’ve barely crossed the t’s and dotted the i’s for summer ministry.

So why is it a smart idea to start planning for fall ministries now? Because the summer will be crazy, time will pass quickly, Fall will be here, and how the Fall Kick-off goes – so goes our next school year of ministry. When by the Fall Kick-off, a thorough smattering of what everyone in your church needs to know for full participation in the next school year’s ministries is available, it makes for a smoother, happier experience for everyone.

I know, I know. Your team (staff and/or volunteers) are
tired and not excited about starting work projects for next year now. They’re
ready for a little ministry breather. I get it and volunteers deserve a break,
a change of pace.

Here’s an idea I recommend: have an end-of-the-year
volunteer “thank you” gathering. Serve a little meal or fun snacks, have a few
little tokens of appreciation, and while you’re celebrating the volunteers, pick
their brains with debriefing questions. People feel valued when their thoughts
are asked for and appreciated. Here’s a list of questions you can ask:

What celebration stories can we tell from this
past year’s ministry?

What worked really well in the ministry?

What ministry pieces do we want to keep?

What didn’t work as well?

How can we fix those “less than optimal” pieces?

What new initiatives would be good for next
year?

As your people give you input and ideas, observe who has
what passion for tweaks and changes in next year’s ministry. Ask them if they
would, while still enjoying a breather over the summer, think through a game
plan for that piece of the fall ministry puzzle. They don’t have to have any
meetings, they don’t have to implement the details; you’re just asking them to
think through the steps of what that ministry piece might look like. Be sure
and take good notes of everyone’s input and who said they’d think through what.
(Email me at [email protected] for a great game plan
template you can email them.)

Before everyone says goodbye and heads home, set a date for
gathering back in early August to share the game plans each person thought
through over the summer. When you meet again, just think how great it will be
that so much planning is already done and you, the leader, didn’t have to do it
all.

Here’s a final little secret: those people who pondered over
game plans for the new school year? Most of them will now have an ownership in
their idea plan and I bet they’ll take on a little more leadership of getting
it accomplished.

Me. To our new worship leader. In a conversation where I was questioning him about what we’re going to do to “step it up a notch” this year.

And,
as soon as the words left my mouth, I regretted them.

Why?

Because
I had just caught myself doing the exact
thing that I’m going to spend the rest of this post encouraging YOU not to do.

Which
is this: don’t make Easter Sunday… this singular day… this high holiday that
gets the “all-hands-on-deck” approach in our churches (right along with
Christmas Eve and Mother’s Day*)… don’t make it somehow more important than any
other day.

Now,
before you roll your eyes as dramatically as the stone was rolled away from the
tomb (#EasterHumor) ask yourself these Easter Sunday questions:

Will
someone in your church make sure the
volunteer greeters are “the nicer ones” on Easter Sunday? (some of you know what I’m talking about)

Will
the speakers in your service use different
verbiage to be thoughtful of those who don’t attend church regularly?

Will
there be special communication
pieces that get passed out or more intentionality around which announcements
get highlighted?

Will
your pastor’s message be more
passionate, more “seeker-friendly”, more salvific, or more or less any characteristic, when compared to
other weeks?

Will
there be extra follow-up or
invitations extended after Easter
Sunday that go above and beyond what’s typically done to connect with guests?

If
you answered “yes” to any of the above… the next question is: Why? Why is there an extra special
effort made to do something really
over-the-top on this one Sunday –
instead of EVERY week aiming to be thoughtful of who’s walking through our
doors?

To
get all those “guaranteed” people to come back, right? So that they might meet
Jesus and come to know and believe He is who He says He is and is worth
trusting and following with their whole life? THAT’S why we have the nice
greeters on Easter, right?

I raise these questions because I suspect I’m not alone in being completely guilty of making Easter a big deal and losing sight of the fact that…

EVERY time 30 or 300 or 3,000 people wake up on a Sunday and drive to the same location and commit to spending at least an hour or two of their time with other humans in collective recognition of the ONE human who lived and died and rose again over 2,000 years ago – that that’s worth celebrating! THAT’S worth inviting everyone we know to Every. Week.

Not.
Just. Easter.

At
Ministry Architects, we love Easter. We also love the other 51 Sundays of the
year – and every day in between. And we want churches to be equipped to do what
they’re called to. It’s why we ask questions like…

Why
aren’t the nice greeters the ones who greet people ALL the time?

(practical application question:Does your church have a consistent way of helping a person discern
their gifts then inviting them to the
best-fit places they can serve?)

Why
isn’t there heightened intentionality with communication every Sunday?

(practical application question:Does your church have a known vision,
long-range goals, and core values that all opportunities must align
with?)

Why
do we seem to care more about the guests on Easter than we do about new, rare,
or infrequent attendees the other 51 Sundays a year?

(practical application question:Does
your church have a consistent process
for connecting with people that impacts their return?)

The
Shepherd left the 99 to go find the 1 who was lost. And I just wonder…

…when
we all work so hard to bring our A-games to Easter Sunday, couldn’t one
understanding of this parable be that even when just 1 new person shows up on a
random, non-Easter Sunday, they get to…

interact with a body of people who have a Spirit about them that’s palpable from the parking lot to the pulpit?

experience a whole orchestra, resounding throughout a sanctuary, down the halls, and all the way out the doors?

be
connected with and known with a fierce intentionality by all those around?

Every church has the ability to build a thriving, sustainable stewardship ministry by attending first to two key foundational areas: 1. Architecture: the structures of sustainability and 2. Atmosphere: the culture, climate, and ethos that sustains the health of the congregation. So why do countless congregations, across the country, struggle with finding willing bodies to fill their finance and stewardship committees? It might have something to do with this infamous, anonymous definition of the (oft) dreaded B-word: “Budget: A method of worrying before you spend, instead of afterward!”

Ever wonder how to clear a room full of well-intentioned lay leaders in your congregation? One sure fire way is to ask them to discuss, out loud, their relationship with money, their personal finances, and their family’s budgeting and spending practices!

Money tends to be a topic full of peril and pitfalls, giant “caution” signs, family systems drama, and the ability to both stifle vision and encourage vision. And not just for congregational leaders, but “talking about money” for pastors can be as highly charged as talking about politics with your relatives over a Thanksgiving meal! Is it any wonder, then, that we often can’t seem to find a solid group of volunteers tasked with, some might say, the most important work of the Church: Evaluating how God will use them in the coming year via their church’s operating budget.

Laying the budgetary groundwork to accomplish the work of the church is no easy task! Did you know that Ministry Architects has an in-house financial coach who has been helping churches, non-profits, and missional entrepreneurs wade through the myriad of denominational, secular, and charitable financial resources to connect their mission and ministry dreams to their budgets, all within the context of breeding a culture of generosity? We do! She is busier than ever these days as many of our partner churches find themselves stuck between the best of intentions and some of the lowest levels of congregational engagement in finance and stewardship work that we’ve ever seen.

So where do you start? Building a sustainable stewardship ministry in a congregation, similar to how we evaluate any (specific) ministry area’s long-term sustainability, begins with doing the hard work of evaluating, refining, and/or building guidelines to clarify roles and help establish procedures that will meet the objectives of the ministry area. This architecture, so to speak, must be both foundational and innovative. It must be adaptively strategic as well in order to offer the means to celebrate the financial vision of the church while narrating, not simply by the overly complex, “decades in the making” excel spreadsheet alone, the financial realities of that vision.

Relevant, practical advice for congregations struggling with tremendous shifts in giving and financial engagement can be found in dozens of places and yet how many reading this could actually raise their hands to describe the deliberate process of their congregation’s creation, prioritization, approval, sharing, and celebration of what God is doing in and among them via their operating budget?

This speaks to the “atmosphere” aspect of stewardship ministries: Doing the (even harder) work of evaluating an operating budget within the context of income (from all sources), expenses, ministry priorities, and vision casting assumes your committee members begin this task from the vantage point of a healthy culture, climate, and ethos. There is nothing more stifling to generosity than fuzzy vision! Dramatic, sustainable stewardship ministries happen only when we’ve invited the entire congregation to join in a shared vision with their time, talents, and treasure. As Ministry Architects’ founder, Mark DeVries, eloquently says: “Sustainable change happens when leaders recognize the power of incremental revolution, the power of one small change after another, until the incremental changes result in exponential change.” Imagine the power of religiously celebrating how God uses YOUR church to make a difference in the lives of the congregation and in the greater community. An unstoppable force for sure!

So what’s next for your church or your stewardship ministry? We want to help your church find clear direction and sustained momentum! Ministry Architects’ innovative approach may very well be your solution to moving beyond the unruly stewardship and budgetary challenges that have kept your church “stuck” or “plateaued”, sharing the load as you strengthen the culture of generosity, giving, and gratitude in your congregation. What do you have to lose?

Ah… fall is in the air and for many of us our ministry programs have kicked off. Your church is thrilled with the typical fall energy that brings an increase in attendance and excitement for the year ahead. Choirs are planning for the Christmas cantata. Children’s ministries are arranging fall events like Trunk-N-Treat. And youth ministries programs are in full swing and planning for the fall retreat with high schoolers somewhere offsite.

Yet, in the middle of the excitement that is fall ministry, somewhere in the back of our minds we’re beginning to think about next summer. In some ways it seems so far off, but that’s the exact right amount of time to get our summer calendars and schedules together.

With that in mind here are ten things to consider as you develop next summer’s calendar.

Consider your mission and ministry goals. Summer events, retreats, and programs across age groups in the church can feel like last minute, haphazard, and purposeless planning… when they’re planned last minute, haphazardly, and without purpose. By starting our planning early, it allows time to reflect on our mission and our ministry goals first. Then plan camps, retreats, small groups, mission trips, VBS, or any other summer program in a way the will assure we meet our goals.

Request other ministry calendars. Check with the other ministries in the church and see what they’ve got planned or are considering for next summer. This will assure that we don’t step on each other’s toes, demonstrate your willingness to be a team player, and help avoid conflicts that often arise when we wait until the last minute.

Collect school calendars. It’s likely your church serves families who attend multiple different schools that probably get out of school and begin school at different times. If your hoping that the multigenerational mission trip will be well attended, plan it around the availability of the families you hope to serve. This can be challenging to navigate once you’ve collected the calendars but will help to make the best decision for the best possible outcomes.

Communicate early. As you soon as dates are solidified for your ministry’s summer calendar, publish them. Don’t wait. Let’s help make it easy for others to participate. Parents and volunteers are often requesting their time off at least twelve months in advance. Most summer camps for children and youth publish next summer’s dates at the end of the current event. To help our families prioritize our ministry opportunities, earlier is always better.

Help families plan. See above. Families deeply want to be involved, but they often won’t wait. They want their children and youth to be involved, but they are coordinating with other groups who are competing with their children’s time. Plan early and help families do the same.

Review the church wide calendar. This can be an often-missed source of guidance when planning ahead. Just double check to see if what you’re considering is already blocked out by another group. By starting in the fall, that allows plenty of time to change or consider new dates to avoid the conflict. And if the calendar is open, be sure that your ministry gets added.

Request rooms and church vehicles. Once your on the church wide calendar, be sure to make any room and vehicle requests early in the process.

Coordinate payments. Many of the trips that get planned, whether they are a church-wide mission trip, a youth ministry camp, or an offsite volunteer training, require a registration and payments. By planning early, it allows participants to schedule and plan financially as well as with their calendars.

Build momentum. For an upcoming mission trip, you may want to have multiple meetings to prepare the group for the work or experience they will have. Each meeting builds excitement for the upcoming opportunity. Each meeting prepares their hearts and minds for what’s to come. Each meeting the Holy Spirit nudges us closer to those we will serve. These are momentum building meetings that will help the trip into the memory maker it deserves to be.

Add your fall kickoffs. Remember that the summer schedule is not just about summer but help to launch our falls ministries with success. Be sure to include any fall kickoffs, the start of new ministries, and returning to the regular yearly schedule at the end of the summer calendar.

With a little time and attention, the summer calendar can be scheduled, dates set, plans made, and you’re freed up to focus on the ministry this week, while avoiding the rush and anxiety that is guaranteed to take place if you wait until spring.

Introduction

Have you ever felt like your church was moving in a thousand different directions and often spinning its wheels to little or no effect? Have you ever felt like the various ministries of your church are each out there on their own doing their own good work but with little regard for how they fit into a much larger puzzle? Have you ever felt like the only thing bringing your various ministries together is the name on the sign out front? Have you ever felt like your church is simply overwhelmed by trying to adopt and implement every new idea that comes to the table?

You are not alone! Many churches today are experiencing burnout in the process of trying to be all things to all people (in the way Paul expresses in 1 Cor. 10). While we truly hope to address the needs of as many people as we can, we simply often lack the resources and the bandwidth to move in every possible direction.

Let me give you a couple of ideas if this sounds like you.

What is the KEY PIECE?

Several years ago I knew a couple that was making plans for a new house – their first one. They had been apartment living up to this point, so it was almost like they were starting from scratch. They had the basic plan. They knew how they wanted to live in their house, and they knew what they wanted their new house to do for them. But they had gotten to the point of needing to pick finishes and colors for the walls, floorings, lighting fixtures, and furnishings.

“Where in the world do we start?” they asked an interior decorator.

The decorator replied, “I want you to go shopping – not for carpets and colors, not for sofas and window shades, not for bedding and pictures. No, I want you to shop for one key piece that truly expresses what you want reflected in your house. It could be a picture, it could be a really cool piece of furniture, it could be something else. But whatever it is, it should really reflect who you are and who you want to be as you live in this house.”

So they shopped and shopped. Eventually, they found a painting of an Appalachian mountain landscape. They loved the mountains, the natural colors, and the natural stone that would eventually weave its way into their home’s presentation of itself. The key piece — the painting — hung over their fireplace, and everything else in the home somehow picked up on something out of that painting — through either color or character. That key piece brought it all together.

That should be true in your church. There really ought to be a key piece. What is there in your church that, outside your identity as a Christian church, best expresses who you are? What in your church is the thing that brings everybody together? In many, if not most, churches it is the worship setting. But in your church it might be a small group discipleship program that touches even more people than your worship. Or it might be a church-wide discipleship pathway that you are encouraging your congregants to live out. Or it might be a feature in your worship space – a baptismal font or pulpit, for example, or the act of Holy Communion itself.

But here’s the deal — that key piece needs to be recognized as the key piece, and all other parts of the church-wide ministry should draw upon the “color or character” of that key piece. And all other parts should point to the key piece, as they all combine to point to God.

Many churches find it helpful to spend a significant amount of time and energy in establishing that key component. It often emerges as the church casts its vision for what God is calling it to be and do in the next decade or so. Some churches have volunteer personnel or staff that are fully capable of leading such a venture. If that is not the case in your church though, there are excellent ministry consultants, including Ministry Architects, with the experience and expertise necessary to help lead you through it.

How deep will you go?

Once you know what your key piece is, you have to decide how deeply you expect it to be reflected in the various ministries of the church. Let me use a fictitious youth ministry example…

The Church of the Holy Redeemer is a ten year old church plant with contemporary worship that drives the work of the church and is the KEY PIECE in its ministry, reaching 1,000 worship participants per week on two campuses. The worship is excellently produced and is well-planned on an eighteen month calendar (though with the freedom to deviate in response to urgent issues or trends). Because of its eighteen month planning window, Holy Redeemer has the opportunity to incorporate its worship themes into other aspects of its ministry, including its ministry with young people.

Several questions have to be asked if the youth ministry is to reflect the color and character of Holy Redeemer’s worship …

Should 6th through 12th graders at Holy Redeemer be simply incorporated into the church’s main worship setting?

Should these young people have their own similar worship setting that reflects the same themes as the congregational worship?

Should the overall worship themes be incorporated into the discipleship planning for other components of the youth ministry?

In what other ways will the youth ministry reflect the “color and character” of the church’s identity?

Should a church-wide discipleship pathway be developed as a new key piece around which all components will revolve?

A word of caution…

Questions like these give rise to important conversations within the Church and often reflect the push and pull of church leadership, both lay and clergy. If not carefully and respectfully addressed, these types of questions can also distract the church from its ministry and mission, where it ends up sacrificing its main-thing ministry upon the altar of planning, programs, and slick presentations.

Conclusion

It is important to know who you are and to know what best reflects who you are as a church. Otherwise, you may be caught in the trap of trying to be all things to all people. If you have the resources and bandwidth to attempt it, God bless you in your efforts! If not, find the key piece and dare to take it as deeply as God is leading you.

One thing is for certain at each of our churches…we hope for our ministries to grow. However, growing ministries can put a strain on understaffed ministries. That is especially true when the growth in the ministry takes place quickly. Most churches will praise the work, energy, and effort that the staff have put in to growing the ministry, but we often miss how difficult it can be to maintain and sustain the growth or levels of participation that are higher than we are staffed for.

Think about carrying a heavy object. We might be able to lift it and carry it for a distance, but eventually, our arms and legs get tired. We might take a break and set that object down for a bit, before carrying on. We might realize it’s just too heavy to carry. Or, with a deep breath, we’ll lift and give it our all for another short distance until we’re simply exhausted.

Ministry can be quite similar for children’s and youth ministry staff. Many church staff can lead a ministry for a season under the strain of growth or at higher levels than other churches, but one of two things will often happen. These two results are quite predictable. First, the ministry may simply level back out to what would be a normal level of participation. For children’s ministry it is normal for one full-time staff person to sustain the engagement of about 75 children. And for youth ministry one full-time staff person can sustain about 50 youth engaged in the ministry. Or, the staff will get burned out, disengage, or even resign from their current position. It’s typically not a question of IF this will happen, but WHEN will it happen.

The good news is there is a way that leads to better results.

Keeping normal participation levels in mind provides us with a tool to manage and communicate what can reasonably be expected from the ministry, but it also provides us with a way to think and plan strategically for our future staffing needs.

Using these norms, we can build a strategic staffing plan (check out this template). A strategic staffing plan helps us to share with church leaders, pastors, and staff that “this is how it could be” to support the larger number of children and youth the ministry is currently seeing involved. By creating clarity about how many children or youth we can faithfully structure our church staff to support the current and future needs of the ministry. By planning ahead, projecting for growth, and thinking about our future staffing needs we are poised to prepare for the growth of the ministry rather than react to something that has grown out of hand.

A strategic staffing plan also allows us to acknowledge when the church is being the best stewards of the gifts that God has given the church. Certainly, there may be a season in which God gifts the ministry with more children or youth than the church can faithfully sustain. It is in this place, we were are grateful for the work that we are blessed to do, but also, by using the norms above, have conversations with church leaders about healthy expectations the ministry and agree on the number of children and youth that we are prepared to serve.

Most things are better when they are in rhythm. This is true for music and dancing, and it’s just as true for life and youth ministry! You see, the truth is that everything in life has a rhythm, and finding the right rhythm is a requirement for success and satisfaction.

When your ministry is in rhythm, everything seems to work right. It sounds good, looks good, and feels good! On the other hand, ministry looks and feels more like a train wreck when it’s out of rhythm.

When it comes to effective ministry, rhythm matters. Every successful ministry has it, and those that sustain success over time are the ministries that have kept it. Finding the right rhythm is key to success and fulfillment in your ministry.

A ministry that lacks rhythm will feel forced and mechanical, while a ministry that’s out of rhythm will just feel a little off. However, a ministry that has found a healthy rhythm will feel just right! Doing ministry in the right rhythm is like living in a ministry goldilocks zone, and it feels a lot like how we imagined it when God first called us to it.

In over a decade of youth ministry, I’ve experienced both the pain of being out of rhythm and the exhilaration of doing ministry with it. Finding a healthy rhythm changed everything for me, even though it feels like a real life game of red light, green light. I’ve found three beats to a successful ministry rhythm for myself that I want to share with you, and my prayer is that they will help you find rhythm in your context as well.

Beat #1: GREEN LIGHT

Run hard and fast after goals. This is the part of the ministry rhythm where we are relentless about going after our goals and God given dreams. There is a time to lead under a green light and go fast, and this is it!

I’ve found that talking about goals in ministry makes some leaders uncomfortable because it feels too much like business. This shouldn’t be the case though. Goals are simply dreams with plans and deadlines attached. God is the dream giver and has given us all dreams in our hearts. Great leaders know there is a time to go ambitiously after these goals.

That’s exactly what this beat of the rhythm is: a time to go fast and and hard after your dreams and desires for your ministry. The green light beat of the ministry rhythm is all about a furious pursuit of the what. What is God calling you to do? What dreams has He placed in your heart to run hard after.

Beat #2: YELLOW LIGHT

Walk slowly through the crowd. This is the part of the ministry rhythm where we slow down from the hustle to focus on the people. It’s a time to shift our focus from what we are doing to who we are serving.

It’s all too easy to get busy doing ministry for God and forget the people we are ministering to. The yellow light beat is all about taking time to slow down and be intentional about the who. This is the beat of the rhythm that resets our focus on people. How much time are spending walking slowly through the crowd?

Beat #3: RED LIGHT

Rest religiously. This is the part of the ministry rhythm where we stop. It’s where we rest. It’s where we sabbath. This is vital, because if we don’t take the time to stop, ministry will eventually stop us! Ministry workers and pastors who skip this beat will end up being spit out and burnt out by the ministry machine.

Whether it’s your day off, regular vacations, sabbaticals, or an off site work day to focus, it’s important to fight for these times to stop and rest! This is the hardest part of the ministry rhythm for me. I love to go and struggle to stop and rest! The problem is that sustained success can only come with regular periods of rest.

We are at our best and most creative in ministry when we take time to intentionally slow down and rest. This beat is all about charging your ministry battery. What about you? Are you making time to rest and recharge?

Finding the right rhythm is key to effective ministry. My rhythm is to run hard after goals, walk slowly through the crowd, and rest religiously. What’s your best rhythm?

Introduction

Have you ever wondered why some church staff teams just seem to have it all together, seem to always get the job done effectively, and yet seem to be composed of this hodgepodge of people who have very little in common? Welcome to a very balanced church staff with its eye on a common goal. Balanced teams don’t just happen by accident — okay, well, sometimes they do — but usually they happen because of intentional planning (identifying the need for particular gifts) and fortunate opportunity (creating the availability of highly skilled professionals). When these two things combine, God does great things!

Forget the Football Analogy

Sure, I live in SEC Country, and football season is upon us. But building a staff team goes well beyond quarterbacks, blockers, star running backs, and speedy receiving divas. Strong church staffs are built around several important principles that, when combined, create highly functioning, highly cooperative, even highly inspiring teams.

PRINCIPLE #1: It’s a lot like a marriage.

Early in my ministry I came across the three following reasons for why people pick the life partners that they do:

They pick someone much like themselves – Married couples in this category tend to see life from the same perspective, make decisions in similar ways, share similar values, and may even start to look more like each other the older they get. The problem is that their vision is limited. Their perspective is narrow, almost like they go through life with blinders on because they only see life from one perspective.

They pick a person who has strengths they wish that had more of in themselves – While this couple may not understand one another quite as well, they bring a broader view to the table as a team, and they also bring together a greater number of gifts as they go through life together.

They pick a person much like the parent with whom they had the most conflict – Ooooh… that may sound a bit scary. Of course, this means that the person is trying to heal old wounds and sort through old issues. It happens in marriage, and it happens in church staffs, too.

Church staffs are walking a fine line between the first two (with a bit of #3 thrown in). And the goal is to manage a team so that they can see their similarities and their differences, laying claim to and celebrating the value of both with great respect for each other.

PRINCIPLE #2: Know what the goal is.

Typically, that means you’re going to know what your church is reaching for, what it’s moving toward, and this ought to be expressed in three-year goals and hopefully in ten-year, more long-term planning. But for the sake of staff development the three-year goal is probably more realistic. Why? It’s simply because staff tenure typically does not hit that ten year mark, especially if a church is creating the kind of movement that calls for new vision and thus changes in staff gifts.

PRINCIPLE #3: Know what your staff needs are.

If you know what you’re reaching for, you’ll be better prepared to identify the kind of staff that you’ll need, better prepared to identify the kind of staff skills that you need to add to your team.

In my 42 years of ministry work I’ve found that staff gifts fall largely into the following categories — vision, process, enthusiasm, knowledge, perspective, precision, and work. I can also say that I’ve never seen one staff member who embodied all of these gifts (though many churches expect that from their staff members). Here’s just a quick phrase to explain what I mean by each:

Vision – the ability to see the picture of what the church feels led or wants to be

Process – the ability to lay out a plan in order to move toward that picture

Enthusiasm – the ability to create excitement about and commitment to the vision/process

Knowledge – the gift of having the needed information to move the process along

Perspective – the ability to see the bigger picture of how all the parts fit together

Precision – the ability to focus on detail so that important specifics don’t get overlooked

Work – the ability and willingness to put in the necessary hours to get the job done

I won’t try to describe what every type of church situation needs in its church staff, but suffice it to say that the downtown traditional church that is stuck in a rut will have different staff needs than an edge-of-town church plant that is just getting off the ground!

PRINCIPLE #4: Know yourself and build upon that.

If you’re the staff leader… you need to know your own gifts. For example, personally I have known for a long time that I was a process person. I often struggled with vision, despite all my prayers and dreaming, and particularly early in my ministry, I struggled with precision. So I learned that I had to ask for help. I had to have that assistant who had an eye for detail, and I gravitated to others who could dream the bigger dream than I could. If you are the staff leader, you are in the position to build upon your own gifts by adding staff that complement what you bring to the table.

If you’re a staff member… you’ll want to get a bigger picture look at the overall gifts of the staff in which you are serving. In doing so you may discover gaps in gifts that you may want to develop, thus making yourself more valuable to your particular team.

If you’re adding volunteer support… you’ll want to fill some of those gaps in your particular area of ministry with volunteers who add to the mix, contributing gifts that a complex ministry cannot live without.

PRINCIPLE #5: You don’t have to be all things to all people.

God didn’t create you that way, and you will probably burn out or become frustrated trying to be that way. Claim your gifts, and give other people the opportunity to use theirs.

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Ministry Architects is a highly-skilled team of pastors, teachers, executives, youth workers, children's pastors, writers and professors. We're fanatical about success and we can help your church find clear direction and sustained momentum backed up by properly aligned resources.